Map stakeholders by power and interest, plan the right communication cadence and channel for each. The work that prevents most of the surprises programs die from.
Plot every stakeholder on a 2x2 of power vs. interest. Auto-recommends communication strategy: Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, Monitor.
Channel (email, 1:1, steering committee, async update), frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly), and content (what they need from you).
The skeptic, the absentee, the over-engaged, the politically threatened. Five common archetypes and the scripts that work for each.
One purchase, yours to keep. Use it on every program, customize for your team. Works in Excel and Google Sheets.
Programs don't usually fail because the work was hard. They fail because someone with power got surprised, someone with influence felt ignored, or someone who needed to say yes was never properly included. By the time you notice, you're running a recovery plan instead of a program.
Stakeholder management gets skipped because it feels political. It isn't. It's informed communication: the right people, the right info, the right cadence, before they have to ask.
"The stakeholders you don't manage will manage you."
This template forces the discipline. Map them, score them, plan the comms, hold yourself accountable to the cadence. It's the work that prevents most of the surprises.
Two artifacts: a power/interest grid that sorts stakeholders by how much they can affect the program and how closely they watch it, and a cadence schedule that says who hears what, how often, and in what channel. The grid decides the strategy; the schedule executes it.
The RACI allocates authority: who is responsible, accountable, consulted, informed on each decision. The communication plan allocates information flow: what the Informed people actually receive, and when. A RACI without a communication plan is how a Consulted VP finds out about a descoping in the hallway.
Both. The template is .xlsx and opens cleanly in Google Sheets. The PDF cheat sheet covers the grid, the cadence, and the escalation path.
One page, no cost. The exact status format I use to brief leadership in under five minutes. It is the fastest way to see how these tools read before you spend anything.